The present invention relates generally to sport gloves and, more specifically, to golf gloves.
Generally, the conventional golf gloves have been designed and manufactured in similar ways, such that the gloves fit the hand and the fingers stretched straight. These designs have originated from the thousand-year-old multi-purpose design, the major function of which was to protect the hand from cold or from being injured. The glove was originally used in golf as a means of blister protection at the palm-side skin of hand and also to reduce slippage between the hand and the golf club handle caused by perspiration.
In golf, the primary function of a glove should be m enhance the gripping efficiency of the hand. From the mechanics point of view, however, the multi-purpose design has a few serious problems which cannot be solved satisfactorily by surface coating techniques or partial modifications of the design.
When a golf club handle is gripped by a hand wearing such a glove, the palm sides of the glove and hand are compression-buckled, bunching and forming wrinkles of various sizes, while the rear side of the glove is stretched. Since the bunches and wrinkles, being formed generally parallel m the major axis of the gripped golf club handle, are easily shear-deformed, the anti-twist resistance of the glove and hand, which is essential to a good golf swing, is significantly deteriorated. Also, the rear-side stretching of the glove lowers the gripping efficiency, because the tensile force in this stretched side of the glove acts in the opening mode for the hand.
Another problem with the conventional designs is the slippage between the palm side of the hand and the palm side inner surface of the glove or between the palm side outer surface of the glove and the club handle surface. With highly frictional materials recently developed for the club handle and gloves, slippage between the palm side outer surface of a glove and the club handle surface has become a minor problem when the contact surfaces are dry. However, when the gloves are wet with rain or perspiration, the coefficient of friction of these surfaces is lowered significantly, because the water acts like a lubricant between the palm skin of the hand and the inner surface of the glove, or between the outer surface of the glove and the golf club handle. When the club shaft is subjected to twisting torque during the swing motion or at impact, the glove material bunched and wrinkled with the palm skin of the hand is separated from the palm, unfolds, and glides on the palm skin of the hand, allowing the club handle to be twisted, riding the glove material, in the same direction as the twisting torque on the shaft, while slipping occurs also between the golf club handle and the glove. Feeling the inefficient gripping effect with such a glove, the golfers instinctively apply an unnecessarily large force to the gripping hand, which makes the forearm and the wrist less flexible and reduces the club head speed in the long run. Many golfers still choose to play golf bare-handed unless their hands are blistered, because wearing a multi-purpose-design glove actually makes gripping less force-efficient and more inconsistent.
One of the solutions to the bunching and wrinkling problem was to use a VELCRO fastener to produce a tight-fitting feel. In this method of prior art gloves, however, the glove is not tightened and fastened in the direction perpendicular to the golf club handle gripped in the hand, but in the direction perpendicular to the axis of the wearer's forearm. It makes little contribution to alleviate the bunching and wrinkling problem but tightly chokes the hand in the wrong direction just to hamper the hand from light-force gripping and to make the golfer apply a larger force to the hand than is needed.
More advanced attempts to overcome the palm portion bunching and wrinkling problem can be found in other prior arts, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. Mason 2,343,220, Fujita 3,548,414, Widdemer 4,051,552, Kawada 4,453,275, Weiser 4,590,627, and Connelly 5,146,627. In particular, Widdemer first introduced the curved fourchettes to the Mason's previous art, and then Kawada attempted to reintroduce the same idea with some additions. In their arts, however, they failed to embody the fact that each finger consists of the three straight and rigid pieces of bones connected at the three joints. When the hand is bent to grip a rod, each finger is bent only at the three joints, leaving the other portions straight. The simply-curved fourchettes of Widdemer or Kawada do not contour the piece-wise linear rear portion profile of each bent finger. When a glove is made to have a small curvature at the finger portion, this problem of geometric incompatibility does not seem to be pronounced. However, as a glove is made to have a larger curvature, the finger portions of the glove are segregated further from the fingers at the rear portions between the joints,as shown in FIG. 1. If the finger portions of the glove are fabricated to have the same curvature as the hand and fingers fully gripping a golf club handle, the glove with the fourchettes of Widdemer or Kawada is completely detached away from the fingers at the rear side finger portion between the joints, and totally loses the tautness which is essential to golf gloves. Consequently, the invention of Widdemer has been limited, in theory as well as in practice, to gloves with relatively small curvatures of fingers and hand.
The second shortcoming of the art of Widdemer or Kawada is that the glove is not designed to have pre-bending at the first joint of each finger, as opposed to the fact that the hand is also bent at the first joints. When a golf club handle is gripped, the extents of bending in all the fingers are nearly the same at the second joints and the third joints, respectively, while, only at the first joints, the degree of bending increases in sequence from the index finger toward the little finger. However, instead of using the long end side pieces, fully extending from the wrist edge to the tips of the index finger and the little finger, with all the joint portions contouring the shape of the bent rear portions of the hand and the two fingers fully gripping a golf club handle, Widdemer and Kawada either used the short end pieces or only varied the curvatures of the fourchettes.
The third shortcoming of the art of Mason or Widdemer is that the palm portion which is made shorter than the rear portion, can be stretched longer by repeated usage, thereby allowing bunching again in the palm area.
In golf, gloves are not generally worn in pairs. The golf glove is used on one hand, usually the left hand, which grips the club closer to the club handle tip, because this hand plays the major role of the anti-twist gripping of a golf club handle. The other hand does not need any blister protection or grip reinforcement because its role is insignificant as far as the anti-twist gripping is concerned. However, closely examining the roles of the hand wearing a glove, one can find out that the blister protection or grip reinforcement is not needed for the entire hand, as the primary gripping action against twisting is achieved only by the middle finger, ring finger, little finger, palm heel pad, and the butt at the base of the thumb, while the role of the remaining parts of the hand is not vital any more than the role of the other hand.
Initially, conventional gloves were introduced into golf because gloves were the only means available for blister protection, and then, it was later pointed out by many inventors that, due to the bunching and wrinkling phenomena at the palm portions of the glove and hand, the conventional gloves were inadequate for the purpose of gripping a golf club handle. Moreover, both golfers and glove designers have not recognized the fact that what they need for a grip aid is a specialized glove exclusively designed for the single purpose of gripping rather than a multipurpose full-hand coveting glove. The preconception that a grip aid should have the conventional shape of a full-hand covering glove has deterred improvements in the design of golf gloves for many years.
There have been various attempts to make semi-gloves which do not have finger tip portions. However, it is well known that, without the tip portions of the middle finger, ring finger, and little finger, a golf glove significantly loses its function as a grip aid.
When a golf club handle is gripped by a gloved hand, the handle is generally placed on the palm portion and the palm side of finger portions diagonally from the hand heel pad to the pad between the second and third joints of the index finger. The other three fingers helically wrap around the golf club handle, and in the conventional gloves, the seams connecting the front portions of the fingers and the upper side fourchettes facing the thumb are placed directly in the compressive contact region between the fingers and the surface of the golf club handle, making the wearer feel uncomfortable.
Fujita attempted to solve this problem, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,548,414, by using the curved seaming edges convex toward the index finger in the proximity of the second joints of the palm side finger portions. However, since Fujita used the same width for the fourchettes on both sides of each finger and kept the palm side finger portions straight from the third joints to the tips, the completed fingers of the glove were twisted in such a manner that the seam line between the upper side fourchette and the rear portion of each finger is moved laterally toward the middle of the second joint region on the rear side of the finger where the pressure exerted by the glove material on the hand is very high. The wearer of the glove would feel uncomfortable because of the twisting of the finger portions of the glove and the seams pressing down on the rear side skin of the fingers. Kamada also attempted to solve the same problem, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,861, by pre-twisting the finger portions of the glove when the fourchettes are sewn to the palm side and rear side finger portions. However, Kamada's design also has the same shortcomings as those of Fujita, because both upper and lower side fourchettes are made to have the same width.
When a hand is gripping a golf club handle, as illustrated in FIGS. 2a and 2b, the cross-sections, of the three fingers at the regions between the first and third joints are deformed into the trapezoidal shapes, which will clearly show that the upper side fourchettes should be made narrower than the lower side fourchettes in order to avoid the aforementioned problem, and that the fingers are not actually twisted. If the finger portions of golf gloves are made in this manner, the seam lines would pass through the four apexes of each trapezoid and would not directly come into the compressive contact region between the fingers and the club handle surface.